This summer, the nation got the news that Quincy Jones' music magazine Vibe was folding in New York. Now LA mourns the partial loss of its very own urban/dance music lifestyle magazine Urb. The 20-year LA music mag fixture (which started very grassroots as a labor of love within the LA nightlife/DJ "scene") is going on an indefinite print hiatus but will thankfully remain intact online. It finds itself in the throes of a print advertising epidemic affecting of course not just music titles, but publications across the board.
Urb, published by Raymond Roker, will however launch its first all online issue of the magazine this month. There is buzz online that special print issues could be possible periodically though a digital format will be the central hub for the publication.
The Wrap quotes Roker as saying: "Print is for the hearty folks that can tie it into a dozen other business units to keep it afloat while a waning audience looks elsewhere for stimulation and information. We're just no longer interested in struggling through a deep ad recession when we could be flying above it on the Interweb or your iPhone." Indeed!
Photo: Alberto Coto/ Getty Images
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